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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28322721">A Life Day Carol</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor/pseuds/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor'>SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - A Christmas Carol Fusion, Angst with a Happy Ending, Darth Vader Needs a Hug, Darth Vader Redemption, Darth Vader is Scrooge, F/M, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Visions (Star Wars), Gen, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Life Day (Star Wars), Obi-Wan is Marley, POV Darth Vader, Star Wars A Christmas Carol, The Force, The Force is Anakin's Dad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:08:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,765</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28322721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor/pseuds/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Darth Vader is visited by the ghost of his former Jedi master, who sends three spirits to visit him on Life Day in one last chance at redemption.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker &amp; Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker &amp; Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Stave One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Merry Christmas! I read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens every year on Christmas Eve, and I was inspired by that book to write this Star Wars A Christmas Carol fusion. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Trigger warning: Vader briefly contemplates suicide.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Well?” Vader demanded, staring at the men of the <em>Executor</em>. They had sent out the probe droids long enough ago that they should have a solid lead by now. Every day that passed, his son slipped further out of his hands.</p>
<p>One of the technicians stepped up to him, sweating and shaking. Good. He should be afraid. His level of incompetence would determine the length of his life. The aches in Vader’s joints where the shoddy prosthetics met the limbs, the painful irritation of his suit rubbing against his tender, never-healed skin, and the throbbing in his throat from the Emperor’s latest distant punishment had robbed any goodwill not stolen from him by the constantly fruitless search for his son.</p>
<p>“There have been no leads in the search for Skywalker or the Rebels so far, my lord,” the low-level technician said.</p>
<p>Vader reached out with the Force and constricted the man’s throat. As the man fell to the bridge floor, Vader turned and swept past Captain Piett. “Double our search. I want that boy found alive!”</p>
<p>He didn’t run, he never ran, but he did make his way to his meditation chamber as fast as possible. He sighed in relief when his helmet came off and, unlike normal, he ripped off as much of his armor as he could without ripping out his life support. Some of the pain was alleviated, but not most of it. Never most of it.</p>
<p>He tried to hold onto his anger, but it slipped away from him into despair, as it always did. The despair soon slipped away from him too, leaving him empty. He turned his lightsaber over and over in his bare, skeletal prosthetics, and tried to remember again why he even bothered to keep on living. Why did he not just ignite the lightsaber and end it all? What did this life hold that made living worthwhile?</p>
<p>He trod over the old exercise he had well worn out over the past twenty-two years. He lived to serve the Emperor. The man who had once been his friend.</p>
<p>Vader added his new reason to live to his exercise. He lived to protect his son from the Emperor’s wrath. The only way Vader knew how to accomplish this was by turning Luke.</p>
<p>But to turn Luke, he had to find him and capture him. And the way the search was going, and the way events with the Rebels always seemed to turn out, that would probably never happen. Luke would slip through his fingers again and again and again until Palpatine decided Luke was too much of a threat to his power and ended him.</p>
<p>He drew in a deep breath, reveling in the rare feeling of being able to control his breathing. He would find Luke, and he would turn him. They would rule the galaxy as father and son. And maybe then it would be easier for Vader to remember why he kept on living.</p>
<p>“Oh, Anakin, look how far you’ve fallen,” a sorrowful voice said. A familiar voice.</p>
<p>Vader’s head whipped around. Obi-Wan, that cursed man, stood in his meditation chamber, but he was see-through and blue.</p>
<p>The anger that had abandoned him before came easily to him now. “What are you doing here?” Vader snarled. He resisted the urge to ignite his lightsaber. He didn’t have enough room to swing it and still keep the chamber intact, and he wasn’t ready to go back in the suit yet.</p>
<p>“Not surprised to see me?” Obi-Wan commented.</p>
<p>Vader paused. He actually wasn’t all that surprised to see Obi-Wan, even though he knew the man was dead. He wasn’t entirely sure why. Maybe it had to do with what he had said to him right before he died. Even though his former master had lied to him plenty, Obi-Wan never, ever conceded a fight to him, and Vader wasn’t so stupid as to not be able to recognize that he had chosen to die. It was inevitable that he would have some sort of back-up plan. “No. Come to torment me, revel in the eternal pain you’ve caused me?” Vader spread his arms, showing Obi-Wan the damage Mustafar had done to him in all its glory. “Well, come and look! Come taunt me in how this is all due to the Dark Side, how this is all my fault! Lecture me on how it is not the Jedi way to kill unarmed men and try to explain how you could love me and abandon me to suffer like this! Go ahead, Obi-Wan! Give it your best shot! You won’t be able to do much. The Emperor you left me to has taught me a lot about enduring torture since we last met as friends.”</p>
<p>Obi-Wan winced. “I’m not here to lecture you, Anakin. I’m not here to taunt you or tell you of my love. You seem determined not to believe me, although my brotherly love for you is the reason I could not kill you on Mustafar. I’m here because the Force has decided to send you a message. I am here to deliver that message.”</p>
<p>Vader threw his lightsaber at Obi-Wan, taking a small amount of pleasure in seeing the hilt soar through his insubstantial body. He folded his arms across his chest and tried to pretend he didn’t care, as if ghosts of dead <strike>loved ones</strike> enemies from the past regularly came to him and told them they had a message from the Force, as if this wasn’t either a sign he was finally dying or the strangest intervention anyone had ever received. “Well, deliver it, so that I will not have to view your deceiving face any longer.”</p>
<p>“You have lost your way,” Obi-Wan said. “You have turned aside from your destiny, and in your choices, the whole galaxy will be doomed, the Force will remain unbalanced, and the universe will plunge into darkness unparalleled in history. However, there is still time to change your path. To assist you in this decision, the Force will send three spirits to guide you and speak what is necessary. Expect the first tonight at 0100, the second at 0200 and the third at 0300.” Obi-Wan sighed and melted. “Please, listen to them, Anakin. If the Force still thinks you can turn back… It’s all I ever wanted. I want you back, Anakin. I’m sorry for everything I did to you, anything I did that led you to this, but please, don’t make the choice to keep suffering any longer. This can all be ended if you just turn back. You can be happy again. Do you remember when you were happy? I miss that. I miss seeing you happy. Please, just…listen to what they have to say. It may be the last chance you get.”</p>
<p>Vader shrank under Obi-Wan’s earnest, distressed gaze. He couldn’t muster the anger he wanted after the desperate apology, but couldn’t let his hurt at his former master go either. Feeling like the naughty padawan he had once been, he shrugged and glanced away. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the blue form fade.</p>
<p>Vader shrugged again. It was just a hallucination. He dredged up his old anger, finally able to hold onto it again, and sank into meditation.</p>
<p>His anger faded for troubledness as the strange encounter with Obi-Wan’s ghost came back to him.</p>
<p><em>It was just a hallucination,</em> he tried to assure himself as he drew himself into the closest he was going to get to sleep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Stave Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Anakin,” a deep voice broke in. “Anakin. Anakin!”</p><p>Vader started, his eyes snapping open. Master Qui-Gon stood before him. Was this another vision—or nightmare—where Master Qui-Gon told him how disappointed he was in him?</p><p>No, Vader was very much awake. “What are you doing here?”</p><p>“I have been sent here on a very specific task. I have come to deliver to you part of the message the Force is sending you. Right now, I am the Ghost of Lives Past,” Master Qui-Gon said. His hands were folded in front of him and he was standing, not blue or see-through, right in front of Vader.</p><p>“Long past?” Vader asked, hoping beyond hope he’d be sent to see the misery of other Sith Lords and their gruesome ends.</p><p>“Your past.”</p><p>Of course. He could never be so lucky.</p><p>Qui-Gon extended his hand to him. “Come with me. We shall travel into the shadows of your past and witness the things that once were.”</p><p>Vader stood, but did not take Qui-Gon’s hand. “I cannot travel anywhere outside this capsule without my suit on. I will not be able to breathe.” And call him stubborn, but he refused to put it on until he was good and ready. He wasn’t ready.</p><p>Qui-Gon put a hand on Anakin’s chest. “Bear but a touch of my hand here, and you will be upheld in more than this.”</p><p>Vader began to breathe easier than he had in years, since he had before Mustafar. In simple gratitude to what the ghost had done for him, he took Qui-Gon’s hand without arguing or fighting.</p><p>The pod melted away from them. Bright, burning sand coalesced around them. Twin suns beat down on them.</p><p>Vader swallowed down a complaint. Tatooine. They were standing in the streets of Mos Espa, in the slave quarters.</p><p>“Do you recognize this?” Qui-Gon asked.</p><p>“Of course I do, you old fool,” Vader said. “I was a boy here.” He had given up trying to pretend Anakin Skywalker was a different person than himself when he had found Luke Skywalker was alive and well. Even after twenty years, he hadn’t managed to convince himself of it. It had been a fruitless exercise.</p><p>A much younger, more foolish version of himself ran by in homespun, laughing, golden hair shining in the setting suns. Wald, a young Rodian slave <em><strike>his former friend</strike></em> ran with him. Kitster ran after them, hot on their heels. He reached out. His fingertips barely brushed Anakin’s tunic.</p><p>“Tag! You’re it!” Kitster crowed.</p><p>“Nuh-uh! You barely touched my shirt! That doesn’t count!” Anakin protested.</p><p>“It does too,” Kitster said.</p><p>The three boys came to a stop in the dusty streets heaving for breath.</p><p>“No, it doesn’t!” Anakin said. “You didn’t even touch me, you touched my clothes.”</p><p>Wald came closer. “I’m not sure that should count, Kitster. We aren’t our clothes.”</p><p>Kitster rolled his eyes and slapped his hand down on Anakin’s shoulder. “Is that better?”</p><p>Wald shrugged. “I guess so.”</p><p>Anakin tried to suppress a grin. “But we were on timeout!”</p><p>“You didn’t say timeout!” Kitster protested.</p><p>Anakin inched closer to Wald. He slapped him on the shoulder and took off running, laughing. “Tag! You’re it!”</p><p>“Hey!” Wald cried out. “Anakin, you trickster! Come back here!” He bolted after him, Kitster close behind.</p><p>“Ani! Time for dinner!”</p><p>Vader froze along with his younger counterpart. That voice. That…haunting voice. The voice he’d tried to erase from his memory. The voice that never failed to move him.</p><p>Mom.</p><p>Young Anakin shrugged. “I’ve gotta go. See you tomorrow!”</p><p>“Bye!” Kitster and Wald chorused.</p><p>Anakin disappeared into his house, Mom close behind him.</p><p>“What’s this? Is that a tear upon your cheek?” Qui-Gon asked.</p><p>“No,” Vader retorted. “I haven’t been able to cry since Mustafar.” Nevertheless, he swiped at his cheeks, surprised to find them wet.</p><p>Odd.</p><p>“Let’s see another day,” Qui-Gon said.</p><p>The time of day changed. The people on the streets disappeared. A man appeared sitting on his stoop. Master Qui-Gon stood at the end of the street with an older Anakin, backpack slung over his shoulder and ready to become a Jedi.</p><p>Ignorant fool. Bitterness arose in Vader’s throat. If only he had known what was going to happen, he might have never left Tatooine.</p><p>Anakin slowed and turned around. He ran to his mother, who stood at her doorstep. He received a hug and a kiss. “I can’t do it, Mom. I just can’t do it.”</p><p>Vader touched his own cheek. It seemed smoother than it should be.</p><p>He frowned and pushed it away. He took in his mother hungrily.</p><p>“Ani,” Mom said.</p><p>“Will I ever see you again?” Anakin asked, close to tears.</p><p>“What does your heart tell you?” Mom asked.</p><p>Tears streamed down Vader’s cheeks. He wouldn’t see her again, not until she was suffering and dying. It wasn’t fair. “Take me away from this. Why do you torture me?”</p><p>“You had a purpose, Anakin,” Qui-Gon said. “A destiny. Your mother knew this. That is why she sent you away. She knew you were meant for more than the life of a slave. Why have you given yourself back into slavery?”</p><p>“I said take me away!” Vader spun on Qui-Gon. “I don’t need to see this!”</p><p>“You were happy once,” Qui-Gon said. “Do you remember?”</p><p>“You really don’t like politicians, do you?”</p><p>Vader flinched. He squeezed his eyes shut, afraid to look around.</p><p>It was her.</p><p>“I like two or three. But I’m not really sure about one of them,” a young, brash Padawan Anakin Skywalker said.</p><p>He laughed, and <em>she</em> laughed with him.</p><p>Padmé.</p><p>Vader opened his eyes. He was standing in a meadow, a beautiful Nubian meadow, and Padmé—oh, Padmé—was sitting in the middle next to foolish Anakin Skywalker.</p><p>Happy Anakin Skywalker.</p><p>Vader barely listened as young Anakin half-teased Padmé with his lack of knowledge or conviction about the political system.</p><p>And then they both started laughing. Again.</p><p>Vader drank in the sight of his angel laughing. Happy. “I miss you,” he whispered. “Come back to me.”</p><p>Shaaks appeared in the field. Anakin balanced on top of one of them badly, laughing as he rode by a laughing Padmé. He fell off. The shaak jumped over him. Anakin faked failing to get up.</p><p>Padmé ran for him. “Ani! Ani, are you all right?”</p><p>She turned Anakin over. He was laughing, hard. Padmé slapped him. Laughing, they turned over and over, rolling down the hill. Padmé ended up on top, and they lay there, laughing at each other some more.</p><p>Vader’s face ached. He felt it to try and figure out why.</p><p>He was smiling.</p><p>The scene melted away. Anakin and Padmé were standing before a priest, getting married. C-3PO and R2-D2 looked on.</p><p>Vader sighed before he could help himself. His heart ached for the time that was.</p><p>All right. He would admit it. He missed the way it used to be.</p><p>Why else did life seem so pointless now?</p><p>“Life wasn’t always a honeymoon on Naboo,” Vader reminded Qui-Gon.</p><p>“Indeed. And yet you were still happy, weren’t you?”</p><p>Naboo melted away to show a break room on the <em>Resolute</em>. Anakin, with the dark armor and shortish-longish hair that marked the height of his knightship, was sprawled out at a table, cards in his hand. Ahsoka sat across from him, cards in her hands as well. She glared at him. Rex, in between the two on one side of the table, laughed. Obi-Wan, in between them on the other side, just stroked his chin and stared at his cards.</p><p>“Master, do you have any twos?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>“Nope,” Anakin said. “Go fish, Snips.”</p><p>Ahsoka scowled and took a card from the pile on the table. “Your turn, Master Obi-Wan.”</p><p>“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>“What?” Anakin asked.</p><p>“Do you have any sevens?”</p><p>“Why’s everyone picking on me?” Anakin asked.</p><p>Obi-Wan laughed. “Because it’s fun to see you react. Sevens, Anakin.”</p><p>“Go fish,” Anakin retorted. “All right, Ahsoka, have any eights?”</p><p>Ahsoka scowled and handed over two cards. “How do you always know?”</p><p>Anakin grinned. “It’s called skill, Ahsoka.” He set four cards down on the table.</p><p>“You sure it’s not called cheating?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>Anakin ignored her. “Obi-Wan, you got any fives?” Anakin asked.</p><p>“Go fish,” Obi-Wan responded.</p><p>Anakin heaved a put-upon sigh and grabbed a card from the pile. “Your turn, Rex.”</p><p>“All right, general. Do you have any tens?” Rex fingered his cards.</p><p>“Rex!” Anakin cried out.</p><p>They all burst into laughter.</p><p>Vader reached out a hand to the scene before he could help himself. Snips. Rex.</p><p>Obi-Wan.</p><p>They had been so happy. And on the rare occasions he got to be with Padmé, he had even happier.</p><p>“It’s…it’s…it’s the Jedi’s fault it all came crashing down,” Vader managed.</p><p>“Is it really?” Qui-Gon commented drily.</p><p>The world shifted around them. They were standing in a large, dark room with a throne at one end. Ahsoka was standing there as she had looked the last time he had seen her before he…before he…</p><p>Well. Before he became this.</p><p>Across from her stood Maul.</p><p>Maul? What was this? “What is going on? When is this?” Vader asked.</p><p>“This was during the Siege of Mandalore,” Qui-Gon said. “Now hush.”</p><p>Vader obediently quieted, incredibly curious. This was an exchange he hadn’t been witness to, and he was unsure of the outcome. He knew neither combatant perished here, but that was all.</p><p>Maul paced in front of Ahsoka as explosions rocked outside. “Were you not cast out of your Order?”</p><p>Vader stiffened with anger at the memory, his hands curling into fists. That was one of the things he wasn’t sure he could ever forgive the Jedi for.</p><p>Ahsoka, however, was not moved. “I left voluntarily.” No bitterness, no anger, just matter-of-fact.</p><p>The anger at the Jedi melted into hurt that stabbed into Vader’s heart. Yes, he had almost forgotten that. In the end, she had been welcomed back, by him and the others.</p><p>And she had left him anyway.</p><p>
  <em>Why does everyone leave me?</em>
</p><p>“Ye…yes, but you were motivated to leave by the hypocrisy of the Jedi Council,” Maul pressed.</p><p>Indeed she had. The Jedi had been full of hypocrites. How was this supposed to convince him the Jedi weren’t responsible for the collapse of the galaxy? Even Ahsoka had no response for that.</p><p>But Maul wasn’t done. “We were both tools for greater powers.” More explosions punctuated his words.</p><p>Vader tried to ignore those words, but he couldn’t. The Jedi had used him as a tool, yes, but they had also cared about him. Obi-Wan had deceived him terribly with Rako Hardeen, but he’d blown up at Anakin later after one too many cold shoulders yelling that he thought Anakin would understand him doing anything to keep Palpatine alive, because Anakin cared more for that man than for Obi-Wan. The Council used him to spy on Palpatine, but with what he knew now of Palpatine and his plans, he could hardly blame them. In fact, it was remarkable it took the fools so long to finally be suspicious of the man. But Palpatine, that man had used Vader as a tool like no one else had. And Palpatine didn’t care for him at all.</p><p>“I am here to bring you to justice,” Ahsoka insisted.</p><p>“Justice is merely the construct of the current power base,” Maul said. “A base which, mm, according to my calculations, is about to change.”</p><p>“And Darth Sidious is behind it?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>Maul kept glancing around the room, unable to settle on one thing to focus on. “He is behind everything, in shadows, always, but soon, very soon…” He sighed. “He will reveal himself.”</p><p>“With your help, the Jedi can stop Sidious before it’s too late,” Ahsoka said.</p><p>Vader’s heart pounded hard. Still, even after such betrayal, she had such faith in the Jedi.</p><p>Maul was incredulous at her words. “Too late for what? The Republic to fall? It already has, and you just can’t see it! There is no justice, no law, no order, except for the one that will replace it! The time of the Jedi has passed. They cannot defeat Sidious.” Maul turned to her. “But together, you and I can. Every choice you have made has led you to this moment.” He stuck out his hand for her to take.</p><p>Of course. Maul didn’t truly have the welfare of the galaxy at heart, but revenge against his former master and desire for conquest. And he had tried to seduce his apprentice to help him do it. He’d tried to turn his Snips to the Dark Side. Vader almost felt for his lightsaber before he remembered this had already happened and nothing he could do would change these events.</p><p>The window exploded. Sparks and shards of glass flew past Ahsoka and Maul, and the specters of Vader and Qui-Gon standing there. Ahsoka was quiet for a few seconds, gazing off at the floor, then she turned to Maul.</p><p>“I will help you,” she said.</p><p>A protectiveness Vader hadn’t felt in a long time sprang into him. He withdrew his lightsaber and ignited it, storming in between his former apprentice that had been foolish enough to agree to join up with a Sith Lord and the Sith Lord that had been foolish enough to seduce her. He pointed the red blade at Maul’s neck. “You get away from her,” he snarled. “She is not ready to face Sidious! And she should never, ever be <em>your</em> apprentice. What can you teach her except pain and misery and failure?”</p><p>“These are but shadows of things that have been,” Qui-Gon said calmly.</p><p>Anakin ignored him, resolutely keeping himself between his apprentice and Maul. It didn’t matter whether or not he could influence the things of the past. He wouldn’t take a chance on it and let Maul get past him to hurt Ahsoka.</p><p>The tableau resumed, even though Vader hadn’t been aware it had stopped.</p><p>“But you must answer one question,” Ahsoka continued. “What do you want with Anakin Skywalker?”</p><p>Vader jumped and spun around to face Ahsoka. Anakin Skywalker? But all Maul cared about was Kenobi. Why should Maul be concerned with him?</p><p>“He is the key to everything,” Maul said, lowering his hand.</p><p>Vader turned back to him, almost unable to believe what he was hearing. Such talk made sense from the Jedi with their Chosen One nonsense, but not from Maul.</p><p>“To bring balance to the Force?” Ahsoka asked.</p><p>Maul seemed almost confused as he continued. “To destroy,” he corrected. “He has long been groomed for his role…as my master’s new apprentice.”</p><p>Oh. <em>Oh</em>. Vader dropped his lightsaber, feeling almost sick and unsure why. Didn’t this just show that Palpatine had foreseen the future, been planning for this for years?</p><p>But Vader had convinced himself the Jedi were wrong, and he had really been destined for the Dark Side all along, that all his struggles with their Code and rules had been because he was so different from them. The way Maul stated it made it sound as if many of his struggles, his arguments and conflicts and unhappiness, had stemmed not from something inherent in Anakin or the Jedi, but from Palpatine. Anakin hadn’t been the one directing his own path, controlling his destiny. It had been Palpatine all along. Palpatine had shown him the way and he, like a foolish child that didn’t know any better, had simply walked it as he had been led.</p><p>“You lie,” Ahsoka protested.</p><p>“I’m afraid not. In fact, I was so certain of his fate that I orchestrated this war to lure him here with Kenobi to kill him, thus depriving Sidious of his prized pupil.” Maul pointed at the broken window as if Sidious were right out there fawning over Anakin.</p><p>Vader’s lightsaber fell from his fingers. He stooped and clipped the lightsaber back to his belt, tamping down his urge to be sick (and wasn’t that odd? He hadn’t been able to really eat or vomit on his own since Mustafar). Prized pupil. Try slave. That was what Sidious had wanted all along. The galaxy as his playground and Vader as his slave. This was all Palpatine’s fault. Even Maul knew it, though he had stopped being Palpatine’s apprentice just at the time they had met Anakin for the first time. The Jedi had just been tools used by Palpatine to accomplish his goals. Just as he was. Just as they all had been.</p><p>“I know Anakin.” Ahsoka ignited her lightsabers, the lightsabers he had made blue and carried with him everywhere in the hopes he’d meet her again. Maul growled as she spoke further. “Your vision is flawed.”</p><p>Vader’s eyes filled with tears, pride battling with a heart sickness. Just as he had been about to fall, Ahsoka had been willing to stake her life and the galaxy on her faith in his unwillingness to fall.</p><p>He didn’t deserve her. He didn’t deserve any of them.</p><p>And he wasn’t on Mandalore anymore, but Coruscant. The sun was setting, and Padmé—oh, Padmé—was boarding her yacht, Threepio right behind her. Her pregnant belly was large with their child. <em>Luke.</em></p><p>“My lady, let me come with you,” Captain Typho begged.</p><p>“There is no danger; the fighting’s over, and this is personal,” Padmé said.</p><p>Pain stabbed Vader’s chest. No danger. She had trusted him implicitly. It never even occurred to her that he might be a danger to him.</p><p>Where was Obi-Wan? He had been on the ship too. She had brought him to Mustafar to kill him.</p><p>“As you wish, milady, but I strongly disagree,” Captain Typho said.</p><p>“I’ll be all right, Captain,” Padmé said. “This is something I must do myself. Besides, Threepio will look after me.”</p><p>Vader snorted. As if Threepio could ever be a defense against an angry Sith Lord. He probably couldn’t be a defense against an angry loth-cat.</p><p>“She puts a lot of faith in that droid,” Qui-Gon commented.</p><p>“Shut up,” Vader replied.</p><p>Padmé boarded the ship. Threepio said, “Oh, dear,” and followed her.</p><p>And still no Obi-Wan.</p><p>As Threepio disappeared onto the ship, a brown figure arose from in between a bunch of crates and walked onto the ship in a swift crouch.</p><p>Hot pain stabbed Vader. He stumbled back, tears filling his eyes. Obi-Wan had snuck onto the ship. Padmé hadn’t betrayed him.</p><p>“This is all my fault,” he gasped. “I betrayed her. I turned on her. I hurt her when she only wanted to help me.”</p><p>Coruscant turned into Mustafar. Vader cringed, not wanting to see Padmé fall again.</p><p>Artoo beeped. He was rolling behind Obi-Wan, who was striding toward the yacht with singed robes. Threepio came down the ramp.</p><p>“Oh! Master Kenobi! I have Miss Padmé on board. Please, please hurry. We should leave this dreadful place.”</p><p>Obi-Wan wearily clasped Threepio on the shoulder.</p><p>Vader’s rigid muscles melted. He wasn’t going to have to see his biggest mistake again. Maybe he was going to see how she managed to give birth to Luke before dying.</p><p>Vader was standing in front of Padmé, who was lying on one of the bunks. Obi-Wan walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She began to wake up.</p><p>“Obi-Wan,” she whispered, breathing heavily. “Is Anakin all right?” She closed her eyes and passed out again.</p><p>Tears streamed down Vader’s cheeks. Even after what he had done to her, she still cared about him. She still wanted to know if he was okay.</p><p>Then he was in a medical center. He was on one side of the glass with Obi-Wan, Yoda, Bail Organa of all people, and Threepio and Artoo. Padmé was on the other side of the glass on the table surrounded by medical droids. A medical droid floated out to Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail.</p><p>“Medically, she’s completely healthy.”</p><p>What? Vader’s head spun. Healthy? So he hadn’t injured her at all with his… his… what he’d done? She’d been just fine?</p><p>“For reasons we can’t explain, we’re losing her.” The medical droid folded its hands.</p><p>“She’s dying?” Obi-Wan exclaimed.</p><p>“We don’t know why. She has lost the will to live.”</p><p>Vader buried his face in his hands, fighting despair. She was still dying. She was still gone.</p><p>“We need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies,” the droid finished.</p><p>Vader’s head snapped up. Babies? As in…plural? Multiple children?</p><p>“Babies?” Bail exclaimed.</p><p>The medical droid shrugged. “She’s carrying twins.”</p><p>“Twins,” Vader whispered. “I have twins.” Had they both lived? Were they both out there somewhere?</p><p>He was beside Padmé, who was crying out. A wide skirt protected her from prying eyes from the waist down. A medical droid stood at her feet. Obi-Wan stood at her head.</p><p>A baby’s cry filled the air. The medical droid lifted a baby up.</p><p>Anakin reached out to the baby. His son. His fingers went right through the baby’s forehead. He let out a cry.</p><p>The medical droid said something to Padmé. She replied, “Luke.”</p><p>Luke. His baby. Anakin placed his fingers over his son’s forehead, since he couldn’t actually touch his son. “I would give my life for you, my son,” he whispered. “Sidious will never get his hands on you, I guarantee it.”</p><p>The droid placed Luke in Obi-Wan’s arms. Luke squealed and cooed as Obi-Wan bent down to show him to Padmé.</p><p>She stroked his cheek and smiled. “Oh, Luke.”</p><p>Then she cried out again. The medical droid spoke again. Another baby’s cry filled the room.</p><p>The medical droid showed the new baby to Padmé. Anakin stared at the second child, the one he hadn’t ever suspected was there.</p><p>“It’s a girl,” Obi-Wan said.</p><p>Anakin pumped his hand in the air. “I knew it! I told you it was a girl! I told you!”</p><p>“Leia!” Padmé gasped.</p><p>Oh. <em>Oh</em>.</p><p>Oh no.</p><p>Leia.</p><p>The feisty princess from Alderaan, Bail’s daughter, Bail who was <em>right there</em> on the other side of the glass, the one who looked so much like Padmé and acted so much like him.</p><p>The one he had tortured on the Death Star. The one he had had such respect for, the one he knew would never crack, the one he almost didn’t want Tarkin to execute.</p><p>Of course she was his daughter.</p><p>Of course.</p><p>“Obi-Wan,” Padmé said, breathing heavily.</p><p>Anakin spun swiftly. “Padmé, please, I’m here. Don’t go. Do not leave me, Padmé, please, just hold on.” Tears spilled onto his cheeks. He reached out to her but faltered. His hands would just go straight through. “Don’t…do not…do not lose the will to live. Live for our children, they need you, please!” He fell to his knees, folding his hands and letting his head drop on them. “Don’t leave me.”</p><p>“There’s good in <em>him</em>,” Padmé whispered. “I know. I know there’s…still…” She let out one long last breath and died.</p><p>Anakin’s breath caught in his chest. She died believing in him. Her last words were her belief that he could come back.</p><p>Luke began to cry. With a heavy heart, Anakin climbed to his feet.</p><p>Qui-Gon put a warm hand on his shoulder. “Come. Our time is almost up.”</p><p>“I don’t…want to leave them,” Anakin said quietly, staring at his son and Padmé.</p><p>The white of Padmé’s medical gown grew, overtook the world. And he was back in his medical capsule. Alone.</p><p>“Wait!” Anakin cried. He spun around, but Qui-Gon was gone. “Come back!”</p><p>“Ani?”</p><p>He froze. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.</p><p>He turned slowly, his heart pounding wildly, his lips dry. “Mom?”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Stave Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She looked as he remembered her, dressed in rough clothes, worn but kind. She wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t condemning either. She simply looked sad. “What have you become, my son?”</p><p>Anakin stepped forward. He took her hand and pressed it to his cheek. “Mom. I missed you.” Tears escaped his eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he choked out. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, I’m sorry I didn’t come in time, I’m sorry for everything.”</p><p>“Oh, Ani.” Mom caressed his cheek with her thumb, then pulled her hand out of his.</p><p>Anakin let his hands fall to his side, fighting the disappointment that rose in him.</p><p>Mom raised her hand and slapped him in the face. “That’s for turning to the Dark Side and everything you did afterwards! What were you thinking? Even slaves on Tatooine don’t die in childbirth that often. Did you ever even take Padmé to the doctor? And Palpatine. Anakin, he admitted he lied to you for thirteen years. Why would you believe him when he said he could save people from death if you killed children for him? I did not raise my son to make such foolish decisions. Anakin, if someone is lying to you about one thing, you cannot automatically assume they’re telling the truth about everything else.”</p><p>Anakin cringed away from his mother. She wasn’t even angry, which was even scarier. She was just lecturing him like nobody’s business. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”</p><p>“That’s right; you didn’t think,” Mom said. “And look at what’s happened because of that. Well, lucky for you<em>, your father</em> the Force has decided to give you a second chance. I currently hold the title of the Ghost of Lives Present. I highly suggest you pay attention to what I show you, Anakin, and think about how you could change.” She reached her right hand out to him.</p><p>Anakin took it in his left. Her hand was warm in his, in a way he hadn’t felt since he’d lost the hand years ago. “I’m sorry, Mom. Truly.”</p><p>Mom sighed and reached up to his cheek with her other hand. She stroked it with her thumb. “I only want what is best for you, Ani.”</p><p>“I know,” Anakin said.</p><p>Mom dropped her hand and gave a small smile. “Come.”</p><p>The meditation chamber dropped away to the officers’ mess on the <em>Executor</em>. Captain Piett was sitting with General Veers and some other officers having a drink.</p><p>“I’m from the Core Worlds,” Veers commented. “Denon. I used to celebrate Life Day with my wife and…” He paused and swallowed. “My son, Zev. After she died, I…” He shrugged. “I haven’t really been home for Life Day since.”</p><p>“I think it’s a ridiculous holiday,” one officer Anakin didn’t know the name of said. “Did you know it’s a Wookiee holiday? Originated with those animals on Kashyyyk. Not something I’d commemorate. Though,” the officer paused. “I wouldn’t mind getting leave to go home and see <em>my</em> family right now, no matter what the excuse. I haven’t seen them in years.” He took a drink. “My wife probably thinks I’m dead by now.”</p><p>“My only family is the Empire,” another officer said, staring into his drink. “It’s…not as loyalistic as it sounds. Kind of lonely, actually, knowing you don’t have a home to go back to.”</p><p>“At least you don’t have to worry about them shipping your body home to your family because you made a mistake around you know who,” a different officer said. He mimed Force choking, then took a swig of his drink.</p><p>Veers broke in. “Let’s not talk about that, shall we? Don’t want him to sense it and…”</p><p>The other officers nodded.</p><p>Anakin hung his head, unable to look at the officers or his mother.</p><p>“I’m from the Outer Rim,” Captain Piett said. “Got a sister and a brother-in-law and a nephew back home in Axxila. We used to be so close before I joined the Axxila antipirate fleet. Now…” He shook his head and raised his glass. “To far-away families.”</p><p>“To far-away families,” the officers chorused.</p><p>They cycled through other toasts, for the Empire, the <em>Executor</em>, good drinks, fine women, victory over the Rebels, leave they didn’t get often enough, being allowed to wear their civvies, and Life Day. The men became cheery and started laughing with each other. Finally, Piett rose again.</p><p>“I propose a toast. To the man that commands our fleet and the loyalty of the Empire, the man that we follow, Lord Vader.”</p><p>The men all fell silent. They stared at Piett in silence.</p><p>Anakin tried to keep back despair. These were his own men, and even they didn’t seem to care for him at all.</p><p>Then again, had he ever really tried to win their loyalty or had he just made sure they feared him enough to do their jobs well?</p><p>“Come on, men. He’s a military genius. He’s led the Empire into victory after victory. He always leads from the front lines. Those are all admirable qualities,” Piett said.</p><p>“Yeah, but he’s a murderer,” one officer said.</p><p>The other officers stared at him.</p><p>“I’m just sayin’ it, everyone’s thinkin’ it!” the officer justified himself. “Killing Rebels is one thing, but the way he treats us? If someone messes up, give him a demotion, for pity’s sake, not an execution! And he never even bothers with a court martial or anything like that. Half the time, the mistake’s not even anybody’s fault and he kills people anyway. How’s that good leadership?”</p><p>“And then there’s his obsession with Skywalker,” Veers said. “He’s been much worse ever since that kid popped up. I get that he blew up the Death Star, but he’s just one Rebel.” Veers shrugged. “Surely there are better ways to use the Empire’s resources than chasing after some wet-behind-the-ears Outer Rim pilot. No offense, Piett.”</p><p>“None taken,” Piett said drily. He focused on the entire table. “Come on, men. He’s second-in-command of the Empire. And it’s Life Day.”</p><p>“I’ll drink his health for the Empire’s sake and the day’s, not for his,” Veers said. He raised his glass. “To Darth Vader, long may he fly.”</p><p>“To Darth Vader,” the men chorused. They tipped back their glasses and drank.</p><p>Mom tugged Anakin away from the table. The world melted away to show a different place, some ship he didn’t recognize filled with Imperial officers and Wookiees.</p><p>Slaves.</p><p>One Wookiee was lagging behind the others. An Imperial snapped an electrowhip at him. The Wookiee roared at the Imperial in defiance. More Imperials rushed in. One shot a stun bolt. The Wookiee fell to his knees, giving the Imperial with the whip free rein to beat the Wookiee some more.</p><p>Anakin winced and looked away. <em>“I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves.”</em> And yet now, he was working for a government that had slaves, in fact, he was helping it do so.</p><p>Obi-Wan was right. He had fallen far indeed.</p><p>“Come, Ani. We don’t have much time,” Mom said. She led him away.</p><p>They walked into an icy room. A bald man with a full white mustache and beard sat on a cot in the snow. His face was familiar. Incredibly familiar. It was a clone. Anakin couldn’t be quite sure who it was, but he had a suspicion.</p><p>The clone activated a hologram. A small Anakin Skywalker appeared, giving the last set of orders for Mandalore he’d given Rex before everything fell apart.</p><p>Rex. That clone was Rex.</p><p>Of course it was. Who else would it be?</p><p>Tears were glistening in Rex’s eyes. “I miss you, general. Remember when we were on this snowy planet, and there weren’t any Seppies there like there were supposed to be? You said we all had leave for the next couple days, and you started a snowball fight, you and the commander against the entire 501<sup>st</sup>. And somehow, you won, too. Well, we’re on a snowy planet again, Hoth, and…” Rex shrugged. “It made me think of you. I hope wherever you are, whatever happened to you, you’re happy. At least…” Rex broke down into sobs. “At least one of us should be happy, general. Everyone else is gone and…you deserved a happy ending. You deserved it more than anyone.”</p><p>Pain stabbed through Anakin’s heart. He reached out to his former captain, the best captain he could ever ask for. “Rex. I’m so sorry, I…” He sagged. “I’m sorry for everything. You don’t deserve this.”</p><p>“Come, Ani,” Mom said. “Our time is almost gone. This way.” They stepped into the filthy main cargo hold of a light Corellian freighter. Given the Wookiee and the captain sitting at the gaming table, Anakin was guessing this was the elusive <em>Millennium Falcon</em>.</p><p>Anakin tightened his hand around Mom’s. “Don’t go.”</p><p>“We all must go sometime, Ani,” Mom said. “I will always be with you. Remember that. I love you.”</p><p>Anakin turned to his mom. He managed to smile at her and spoke words he had thought he’d never say again. “I love you too.”</p><p>“Oh, it’s nothing,” Luke said.</p><p>Anakin spun around. Luke was walking into the room, Leia right behind him. His heart leapt into his mouth. His children.</p><p>“No, it’s not nothing. What is it?” Leia pressed.</p><p>“What’s wrong, kid?” Captain Solo asked from where he was sprawled out on the bench.</p><p>Luke sat down next to Han with a sigh. Leia sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s nothing much, I just…” He shrugged. “I miss Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. And Ben. Every time I got into trouble, Ben was there to get me out of it. He saved my life so many times…” Luke stared down at the table and quieted. “He was the only connection I had to my father. I thought I was going to learn so much about him now that I was with Ben, and then…” Luke shrugged again. “Vader killed him. That man took everything from me and I can’t even come close to matching him.”</p><p>Captain Solo took a drink from a bottle that likely held some sort of alcohol. “Hey, you defeated Tall Dark and Wheezy on Mimban, didn’t you? That’s pretty impressive.”</p><p>Anakin raised his eyebrows, trying to keep back a laugh. Either Captain Han Solo was very brave or very stupid to be inventing names for Vader like that. Likely, the man was a little of both.</p><p>“That was a fluke,” Luke mumbled.</p><p>“Some fluke,” Han mumbled. “Isn’t that right, princess?”</p><p>“Han’s right,” Leia said.</p><p>“Hey!” Han laughed.</p><p>Leia glared at him. “For once in your life. Don’t let it go to your head.”</p><p>Han rolled his eyes.</p><p>“I’m sorry, this is stupid. I shouldn’t be talking like this, it’s been three years and—” Luke started.</p><p>“Hey.” Leia squeezed his shoulder. “There’s no time limit on grief.”</p><p>Luke locked eyes with her for a few seconds, then nodded. “I guess you’re right.”</p><p>Leia gave a soft smile. “When are you boys going to learn? I’m always right.”</p><p>Luke laughed as she pulled him into a hug.</p><p>Anakin smiled. “Some grandkids you’ve got, right, Mom?” He turned to his side, but Mom wasn’t there. He spun around, searching the entire room, but Mom was gone. “Mom?”</p><p>“You’re right,” a soft voice replied. “We have remarkable children, Ani.”</p><p>Anakin’s heart gave a leap of both pure joy and absolute terror. He turned to the angel standing at his elbow. “Padmé?”</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Stave Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Padmé stood near him, wearing the blue gown she had been buried in, her hair flowing freely behind her in curls. She smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. “Hello, Ani.”</p><p>“Angel,” Anakin gasped. He swiftly got down on one knee and took her hands, fighting tears of his own. “I am so sorry for what I did to you, for what I did to everyone. I was a traitor. I betrayed you and there is no excuse, no justification for what I’ve done. I’m sorry, Padmé, so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” He stared up at her, finding some measure of peace in finally being able to pour out the words he’d been longing to say for twenty-two years. An apology. A plea for forgiveness, not that he deserved it bestowed upon him.</p><p>She rested a soft hand upon his cheek. “I forgave you a long time ago, Anakin. Now you have a chance at redemption.”</p><p>Anakin climbed to his feet, fighting the swamp of emotions threatening to flood him. He latched onto something to distract himself from them. “I assume you’re now the Ghost of Lives Yet to Come?”</p><p>Padmé smiled. “That’s right. I’m here to show you what happens if you reject this chance at change, if you do not change your path. Please, Anakin, do not let what I am about to show you become reality. It’s…” She broke off and shuddered. “It can’t happen.”</p><p>Anakin frowned. He was almost afraid to know what would happen if he didn’t turn back, not that it was even possible for him to turn back. After all, <em>“Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.”</em> No, scratch that, he was definitely afraid.</p><p>Padmé let go of one of his hands and turned. The scene swept away to a gray shaft. Luke and Vader were fighting red lightsaber against blue, on a gantry in the bottomless gray tunnel.</p><p>Luke landed a blow on Vader’s shoulder. Vader exclaimed in pain and retaliated. Luke screamed as his hand and lightsaber fell into the abyss.</p><p>His hand. Anakin stared at the amputated limb, flexing his prosthetic hand in Padmé’s. The loss of his hand had been one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, and now he had subjected his son to the same experience. His son! Their baby!</p><p>“There is no escape,” Vader said. “Don’t make me destroy you.”</p><p>Luke scooted along a narrow rail, backing himself away from Vader.</p><p>“Luke. You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power.”</p><p>Luke turned around to face the pole at the end of the gantry.</p><p>“Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy!”</p><p>Luke stood up, grasping the pole with his only hand, his hair whipping in the wind. “I’ll never join you!” he spat.</p><p>“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side!” Vader said, curling his hand into a fist. “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”</p><p>Oh, no. No, no, no. Telling him right after cutting off his hand? How could that end any way but bad?</p><p>“He told me enough.” Luke jumped down on the pole, getting even further away from Vader. “He told me you killed him.”</p><p>“No, I am your father.”</p><p>Anakin cringed. Padmé winced beside him.</p><p>“No. No. That’s not true. That’s impossible!” Luke screamed.</p><p>“Search your feelings. You know it to be true,” Vader said.</p><p>“No! No!” Luke wailed.</p><p>“Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.” Vader reached out his hand to Luke.</p><p>Luke looked down into the abyss for a few seconds, then glanced back up at Vader.</p><p>“Come with me. It is the only way,” Vader said.</p><p>Luke let go, falling down into the bottomless shaft.</p><p>“No!” Anakin exclaimed. He darted forward, but it was too late. Luke had already fallen, and the shaft was already melting around him. “Wait!”</p><p>Anakin and Padmé were standing on a walkway in a forest. Vader stood on the walkway, one lightsaber in his hand and one in his belt. Luke stood beside him, dressed all in black, hands in cuffs, with one black glove on his right hand. He had survived falling off the gantry. Stormtroopers and an Imperial officer stepped into the turbolift behind the two. The door closed, cutting them off from the walkway.</p><p>“The Emperor has been expecting you,” Vader said.</p><p>“I know, Father,” Luke said calmly.</p><p>Vader and Luke strode along the walkway together.</p><p>Vader glanced down at Luke. “So, you have accepted the truth.”</p><p>“I’ve accepted the truth that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father,” Luke said.</p><p>“Good boy,” Padmé said.</p><p>Anakin glanced down at her and smiled. She was right. Luke was growing up to be a fine boy indeed, the whole falling-into-a-bottomless-abyss thing notwithstanding.</p><p>“That name no longer has any meaning for me.” Vader shook the lightsaber in his hand at Luke.</p><p>“It is the name of your true self, you’ve only forgotten,” Luke said. “I know there is good in you. The Emperor hasn’t driven it from you fully.”</p><p>Anakin glanced down at Padmé, who was watching proudly. Luke was so much like her.</p><p>Luke walked away and rested his bound hands on the railing. “That was why you couldn’t destroy me. That’s why you won’t bring me to your emperor now.”</p><p>A pit grew in Anakin’s stomach. He hadn’t disobeyed the emperor in twenty-two years. Even for his son, he wasn’t sure it was possible to break the habit.</p><p>Vader ignited the lightsaber in his hand. The blade was green. “I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete.” He deactivated the lightsaber and turned away from Luke. “Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.”</p><p>Luke turned to face his father. “Come with me.”</p><p>Padmé let out a small sigh beside Anakin.</p><p>“Obi-Wan once thought as you did.” Vader turned to face Luke. “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my master.”</p><p>Luke shook his head. “I will not turn, and you’ll be forced to kill me.”</p><p>“If that is your destiny…” Vader said.</p><p>Anakin’s heart hammered against his chest. He couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t watch him lose his son the same way he lost Padmé. “Let’s go. I can’t watch anymore.”</p><p>“You have to keep watching,” Padmé said.</p><p>“Search your feelings, Father, you can’t do this.” Luke stepped close to his father. “I can feel the conflict within you, let go of your hate.”</p><p>“It is too late for me, son,” Vader said.</p><p>Anakin’s heart sank further. Wasn’t it too late for him? Yoda always said once you became dark, there was no turning back. But why would the Force go to all this trouble of sending him these visions if he couldn’t do anything about them? If he wasn’t allowed to turn back?</p><p>The forest dissolved into a throne room, presumably on the second Death Star that was being built. Palpatine sat in the throne. The design of the room looked somewhat familiar. A catwalk had fallen. Vader was stalking the underside of the throne room platform.</p><p>“You cannot hide forever, Luke,” Vader said.</p><p>“I will not fight you,” Luke said.</p><p>“Give yourself to the Dark Side,” Vader said. “It is the only way you can save your friends.”</p><p>Anakin’s head shook almost automatically. Vader was using the same tactics that had worked on him. That hadn’t made his life any better, so why would he want to doom his son to the same awful fate?</p><p>“Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for…your sister. So, you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will.”</p><p>“Never!” Luke cried.</p><p>He ignited his lightsaber and furiously beat back Vader. Vader retreated through the room under the furious assault until he was standing on a walkway between two pits. He fell back, clinging to the railing. Luke beat down on the lightsaber again and again. Finally, he sliced off Vader’s right hand. The hand and lightsaber fell down the pit. Luke stood above him, panting, lightsaber poised to strike.</p><p>Every muscle in Anakin tensed. Only Padmé’s hand in his kept him from bolting to intervene in the scene.</p><p>Palpatine cackled as he walked down the stairs toward Luke. “Good. Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny, and take your father’s place at my side!”</p><p>Luke stared at his own right hand, then at Vader’s shorn mechanical one. He deactivated his lightsaber and turned to face Palpatine. “Never.” He threw his lightsaber to the side. “I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”</p><p>“So be it, Jedi,” Palpatine said. “If you will not be turned, then you will be destroyed.” He electrocuted Luke with Force lightning.</p><p>“No!” Anakin cried. He ran forward. “You can’t! Leave him alone!”</p><p>The torture continued until Luke was screaming. Padmé released him to cover her face, so Anakin bolted to Palpatine and swung a couple punches into him. They went right through, but it made him feel better.</p><p>Vader climbed to his feet and stood by Palpatine.</p><p>“Father, please,” Luke begged. “Help me!”</p><p>The plea went straight to Anakin’s heart. “Do something, you monster!” He shouted at Vader. “He’s your son!”</p><p>“Now, young Skywalker, you will die,” Palpatine said.</p><p>He sent more lightning into Luke. Luke screamed even louder, convulsing violently. Even worse, though, was when he fell silent. His body jerked for a minute or so more before Palpatine stopped. He turned to Vader. “Go take care of yourself. I’ll get some guards to dispose of the body and destroy these Rebels once and for all.”</p><p>Anakin fell to his knees in front of Luke, tears streaming down his face. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I should have saved you.”</p><p>Vader silently bowed to Palpatine and left the room.</p><p>The second Death Star dissolved to show Palpatine’s throne room on Imperial Center. He was on his throne, flanked by Imperial guards.</p><p>Vader strode into the room, leading Leia in cuffs.</p><p>“Let go of me!” Leia spat. She jerked her arm out of Vader’s grip.</p><p>Palpatine cackled. “Welcome, princess. I trust you had a good journey?”</p><p>“Do not call me that!” Leia said.</p><p>“You no longer need those.” Palpatine gestured, and the handcuffs fell off.</p><p>“Master, I wouldn’t…” Vader started.</p><p>Leia spun and punched Vader hard in the stomach. Vader doubled over. She reached for his lightsaber on his belt.</p><p>Palpatine raised a hand. Leia rose into the air. She kicked, spitting inventive curses at both Sith Lords.</p><p>“Your brother failed to defeat us,” Palpatine said. “And he was trained by some of the best Jedi in the Order. Tell me, what can you, an untrained, angry girl, hope to achieve that your brother did not? You can never hope to sway your father from my side. You can never achieve his redemption.”</p><p>“I’m not here for redemption,” Leia spat. “I’m here for revenge.”</p><p>Vader climbed to his feet. “Revenge is not the Jedi way.”</p><p>“I’m no Jedi,” Leia said. “I’m here to bring both of you to justice for the murder of my brother.”</p><p>“I have an offer to make.” Palpatine folded his hands. “You have no hope to defeat us. Your Rebels are gone, and you and your <em>pathetic</em> boyfriend are all that is left of that pitiful fight. You are all alone here and have no hope of success. You could die here, now, the same way your brother did.” He sent a tendril of Force lightning towards Leia.</p><p>She arched her back and screamed as the lightning enveloped her.</p><p>“Or you could become my new apprentice. I could train you in the ways of the Force, so you can defeat your father. When you have learned all there is to know as my apprentice, you can kill me and take my place as lord of the Sith and emperor of the galaxy.” Palpatine lowered Leia to the floor.</p><p>Leia raised her eyebrows. “You’d train me to kill you and Vader?”</p><p>“It’s the way of the Sith,” Palpatine said.</p><p>Anakin could not rise from the floor. He tried to catch his breath but couldn’t. “Leia, don’t do it. It’s a trap. The Dark Side isn’t worth it.” But she was already so angry, she was almost there already.</p><p>“Leia, do not listen to him,” Vader said. “It is not worth it.”</p><p>Leia stared into his eyes. Her face changed at his words. She turned and lifted her chin, turning a fiery glare at Palpatine. “I’ll do it.”</p><p>Leia was dressed in a black jumpsuit. She raised a lightsaber against Vader, who was barely defending himself. Palpatine was still on his throne, cackling.</p><p>Vader stumbled back. He lost his footing and crashed to the floor. His lightsaber flew out of his hand.</p><p>Leia poised her lightsaber over his chest.</p><p>“Have mercy, my daughter,” Vader said. “Spare me. We can defeat the Emperor together.”</p><p>“I lost my mercy when you murdered my brother,” Leia said. She brought the lightsaber down.</p><p>Vader’s body fell to the floor, respirator silent at last.</p><p>“NO!” Anakin cried. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Leia! Oh, Leia.”</p><p>Palpatine rose and shuffled over to Leia. He put a hand on her shoulder. “You have done well, my young apprentice.”</p><p>Leia turned her fiery yellow eyes to Palpatine. “You’re next, Master.”</p><p>Arms wrapped around Anakin’s shoulders. He glanced behind him. Padmé was standing above him. Tears streamed down her face. She pressed her cheek to his and hugged him tight.</p><p>Palpatine and Leia stood on a rocky outcrop. Lava spilled into the air. It wasn’t Mustafar, but it might as well be.</p><p>Ahsoka strode up, igniting her lightsabers. They really were white! Anakin had thought that was just his helmet screwing with the color.</p><p>“Your reign is over, Palpatine,” Ahsoka said.</p><p>Leia jumped down in front of Ahsoka and ignited her lightsaber.</p><p>Ahsoka drew back. “Leia?”</p><p>“It’s Darth Zus,” Leia snarled.</p><p>Leia and Ahsoka fought furiously over the rocks. At first, Leia was beating her, but then the situation changed.</p><p>Ahsoka leapt onto a rock above a lava river. “You fight like my master, Anakin Skywalker,” Ahsoka said.</p><p>“I am nothing like him!” Leia snarled. She leapt up, trying the same foolish move Anakin had tried on Obi-Wan.</p><p>And of course, it ended just as badly. Leia fell near the lava river, disarmed—literally.</p><p>Palpatine leapt forward. Their fight was even more furious. Anakin alternated watching them and keeping an eye on Leia, spitting out Huttese curses as she failed to move herself away from the lava. Inevitably, her clothes flamed up. Anakin cringed. Padmé buried her face in his shoulder. Leia screamed.</p><p>Both Palpatine and Ahsoka turned to glance at Leia. Ahsoka’s eyes widened. She seemed horrified.</p><p>Palpatine darted forward and plunged his lightsaber in Ahsoka’s stomach. Anakin didn’t have any more energy to scream. His mouth gaped open.</p><p>Ahsoka spun her lightsaber up and lopped off Palpatine’s head.</p><p>Anakin sat in shock as his child, his apprentice, and his master lay dying on the lava planet. Finally, Padmé stood in front of him and put her hand on his cheek. “Let’s go.”</p><p>They were back in the meditation chamber. Anakin stood up slowly. Padmé put her hands on his cheeks.</p><p>“You can’t let this happen,” Padmé whispered.</p><p>“I won’t; I promise.” Anakin drew Padmé close to him. “I won’t let Palpatine get our children. I’ll defeat him, I promise.”</p><p>Padmé gazed up at him. “I have to go. I love you.” She gripped the back of his head, threading a hand through his hair. She pulled him down and they kissed.</p><p>Anakin sighed and closed his eyes, running his hands over her back. When he opened them, she was gone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Leia's Sith name is Dutch for sister.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Stave Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took him a couple minutes, sitting in his meditation chambers trying to process everything that happened, to realize something.</p><p>Padmé had threaded her hand through his hair.</p><p>Except he didn’t have hair. He felt his head, expecting to feel the scarred, bald pate he’d had since Mustafar. Thick strands of wavy brown hair met his fingers.</p><p>On that note, why could he feel the strands of hair so distinctly? He lowered his hand from his hair.</p><p>Instead of the shoddy prosthetic, he had a hand. A real, live actual left hand. He glanced down. He had feet, too. He wiggled his toes in delight. He checked his right hand.</p><p>It was still a prosthetic.</p><p>Well, he couldn’t have everything. After all, this was the hand that had touched Padmé.</p><p>Did this mean he could survive without the suit outside the meditation chamber? Was he healed? Anakin hurriedly opened the chamber and ducked out, searching all around his chambers for a mirror before he finally found one Palpatine had put in the refresher he didn’t really use.</p><p>Yes, he was back to normal. He had hair and eyebrows and smooth, healthy skin. The scar over his eye stood out. And he had a real hand and real legs.</p><p>Anakin cheered. “Thank you!” he shouted. He bolted to the door of his chambers. He had to find his children. Where was it Rex had said he was? Hoth?</p><p>He skidded to a stop right before the door. He couldn’t leave like this. He wasn’t even dressed. He hurriedly ran to his meditation chamber and pulled his suit on. Unfortunately, the suit was the only thing he had to wear. He crammed the stupid helmet on his head and ran out of the chamber.</p><p>He ran into Piett on his way to the hangar. Piett blanched and stumbled back. He bowed hastily. “I am exceedingly sorry, my lord. I wasn’t watching where I was going. It won’t happen again.”</p><p>“It’s all right, it was my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Anakin took his hand and shook it heartily. “Happy Life Day, Captain Piett!”</p><p>“Uh…happy Life Day!” Piett said.</p><p>Anakin released him and ran into the hangar that held his private ship. He hurriedly prepared it for takeoff and signaled the bridge. “This is Darth Vader in Hangar C, preparing for takeoff.”</p><p>“Preparing for—yes, my lord. Where are you going, uh, sir?” a technician stammered.</p><p>“Home to see my family,” Anakin said. “Happy Life Day!”</p><p>“Uh…happy Life Day, sir!” the technician said. “Opening the hangar now.”</p><p>The hangar opened. Anakin lifted the ship and sped out into space. He searched the navicomputer for the Hoth system.</p><p>The coordinates popped up. He smiled and pulled back the lever, shooting into hyperspace.</p><p> </p><p>It was easy to find the Rebel base once he was in the Hoth system. Anakin activated the comm system and paused. What was he even going to say?</p><p>“I’m, uh, Darth Vader, and I’m here to defect,” Anakin said. He grimaced. That was more likely to get himself shot than anything. “I have important information about a second Death Star.”</p><p>“A what? You’re who? Uh, hold on.”</p><p>Anakin sighed and waited, orbiting Hoth as he waited for the approval to land.</p><p>“This is General Carlist Rieekan, with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa. State again your name and intent for the record.”</p><p>“I’m Anakin Skywalker—I mean Darth Vader. I’m Darth Vader and I’m here to defect to the Rebel Alliance. I also have important information about a second Death Star.”</p><p>Anakin waited even longer. He became bored and tapped the console of his ship, humming a tune his mother used to sing him.</p><p>“Is that ‘The Jedi and the Princess’?” Luke asked.</p><p>Anakin jumped. He glanced at the comm and resisted the urge to curse. It was still on. “Uh, yeah. My, uh, my mother used to sing it to me.”</p><p>There was silence for a while. “My aunt used to sing that song to me,” Luke said.</p><p>Anakin spoke without thinking. “She probably learned it from my mother.”</p><p>“What?” Luke burst out. “What do you… what does that… What did you mean when you said you were Anakin Skywalker? Ben told me you betrayed and murdered my father.”</p><p>Anakin snorted a laugh. “Of course he did. I’ll, uh, explain down below. If you’ll let me down, of course.”</p><p>The comm fell silent again. Finally, Rieekan spoke again. “Proceed to the coordinates we’ll send to you.”</p><p>“So does that mean I’m let in?” Anakin asked.</p><p>Rieekan sighed. “You will be given a probationary period. If your information checks out and you have good performance during your probationary period, you will be accepted into the Alliance on good faith.” Anakin heard him mutter, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”</p><p>“Yay! Happy Life Day!” Anakin said.</p><p>“Uh, happy Life Day,” Rieekan said.</p><p>Anakin smiled and followed the coordinates down. He landed in a crowded hangar full of men. He sensed his son and his daughter right outside. He smiled and jumped out. He spread his arms. “Happy Life Day!”</p><p>Luke squinted at him, his lightsaber drawn but not activated. “Are you really here to defect?”</p><p>Anakin nodded. He removed his helmet and tossed it on the ground. “Don’t need that anymore. The Force healed me, gave me a second chance. I’d like to use that to do as much good as I can.” He ripped the gloves and the armor off, tossing them to the side. “Don’t suppose you have a change of clothes?”</p><p>“Who are you?” Luke asked.</p><p>Anakin grinned. “I’m your father.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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